You may experience a Windows stop error message (blue screen) while installing encryption software. The problem is often caused by reinstalling the operating system and not correctly formatting the hard drive before the reinstallation process. Hidden files and folders are left on the hard drive when the drive is not formatted properly. Once the encryption process begins the entire hard disk is viewed using a bit by bit encryption process. If the encryption software finds installation files from a previous version of Windows, then the operating system yields a Windows stop error message (blue screen) since the files do not match the file allocation table references.

Note: Utilities such as Diskpart have a clean command/function; however, this function does not fully format the drive/partition. Be sure to verify the command/function you choose will format the entire drive/partition before continuing.

Fully format the hard drive prior to installing the operating system

To resolve this problem it is recommended that a full format of the drive and its partitions occur, prior to installing Windows, to prevent Windows stop error messages (blue screen) from occurring.

Caution: A full format of the hard drive will erase all data on the disk; therefore, Dell recommends making a backup copy of your data to an external source before formatting the hard drive.